Device and method for stamping label on tire

ABSTRACT

Tire data on tires successively conveyed to a labeling process from a process preceding the labeling process are read in order of conveyance, and the tire data are printed on labels. Since the tire data on each tire is printed on a label and the label is attached to the tire identified by the tire data printed on the label even if different types of tires are produced in random order, the labels can be attached correctly to the tires identified respectively by the tire data. Since the tire data is printed on a blank label immediately before attaching the label to the tire, it is not necessary to prepare labels printed with tire data and it is possible to use only a single kind of blank labels, which is advantageous in respect of space and amount of work.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to a labeling system and a labeling methodfor attaching tire identifying labels to tires in a tire producingprocess, such as a tire manufacturing process or a tire inspectingprocess.

BACKGROUND ART

In a process of continuously producing different, types of tires, thetires must be identified so that the tires may not be subjected to wrongprocesses.

It is important to attach identification labels particularly to greentires before being subjected to a vulcanizing process in a tiremanufacturing process to enable the accurate identification of the typesof the green tires. Unless the green tires can be accurately identified,it is possible that the green tires are subjected to wrong vulcanizingprocesses.

The following labeling methods have been prevalently used.

(1) A first labeling method attaches labels individually printed with anidentification code (barcode) to one lot of tires.

(2) A second labeling method prepares and unwinds a roll of the samelabels identifying one type of tires to which the labels are to beattached among those respectively of different labels identifyingdifferent types of tires, and attaches the unwound labels to the tires.

(3) A third labeling method unwinds a roll having serially arrangedseries of labels respectively printed with barcodes respectivelyidentifying tires of different sizes, and attaches the series of labelsidentifying tires of different sizes successively to series of tires ofdifferent sizes carried in lots discriminated by tire size.

The labeling method (1) requires grouping produced tires in lotsrespectively of tires of different sizes and spoils the flexibility offree production of different types of tires.

The labeling method (2) needs to prepare a number of rolls respectivelyof different labels corresponding to the number of types of tires to beproduced, which is very disadvantageous in respect of space and amountof work needed.

The method (3) needs to change the order of the series of labels and tomake a roll having series of labels arranged in another order if tiresof different sizes cannot be produced in an initially scheduled orderdue to troubles in the production lines and the schedule of productionof tires is changed.

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION

The present invention has been made in view of those problems and it istherefore an object of the present invention to provide a labelingsystem capable of improving the flexibility and productivity of a tireproducing line and of efficiently using space, and a labeling method tobe carried out by the labeling system.

A labeling system in a first aspect of the present invention includes: atire data read means for reading tire data respectively on successivelyconveyed tires in order of conveyance in a tire producing process; aprinting means for printing the tire data on the tires on labels; and alabel attaching means for attaching the labels to the tires,respectively.

The labeling system includes the tire data reading means and theprinting means in addition to the label attaching means, reads the tiredata in order of conveyance of the tires successively delivered from aprocess preceding a labeling process, and prints the tire data on thelabels. Therefore, the tire data on the successively delivered differenttypes of tires are printed on the labels, respectively, in order ofdelivery of the different types of tires and the labels printed with thetire data specifying the different types of tires can be correctlyattached to the different types of tires even if the different types oftires are conveyed in random order, and the productivity and theflexibility of the tire production line can be improved.

The tire data is printed on blank labels, printed labels do not need tobe prepared beforehand, and only a single kind of blank labels can beused. Thus the labeling system is advantageous in respect of both spaceand amount of work.

The labeling system may further include a label reading means forreading tire data printed on the labels attached to the tires, and acollating means for collating the tire data read from the label attachedto the tire by the label reading means with the tire data read by thetire data reading means. Thus, it is possible to decide whether or notthe tire is correctly labeled.

The printing means may print a barcode representing the tire data. Thebarcode printed on the label can be quickly and accurately read, andnecessary tire data can be printed on a small label.

The successively conveyed tires may be green tires individually carriedby carts, respectively, the tire data reading means may be an ID cardreader that reads the tire data recorded on an ID card attached to thecart. Thus the label printed with accurate tire data correctlyidentifying the type of the green tire can be attached to the green tireand hence it is possible to avoid subjecting the green tire to a wrongvulcanizing process.

A labeling method of attaching labels to tires in a tire manufacturingprocess in a second aspect of the present invention includes: a tiredata reading step of reading tire data on successively conveyed tires inorder of conveyance; a printing step of printing tire data on the tireson labels; and a label attaching step of attaching the label to thetire.

The tire data on the successively conveyed tires are read in order ofconveyance, the read tire data are printed on the labels, respectively,and the labels are attached to the tires, respectively. Therefore, thetire data identifying the individual tires are printed on the labels,the labels can be attached correctly to the tires identifiedrespectively by the tire data, and the flexibility of production can beinsured.

Even if individual different types of tires are conveyed successively inrandom order in the tire data reading step, correct labeling can beachieved.

A labeling method of attaching labels to tires in a tire manufacturingprocess in a third aspect of the present invention may include: a tiredata reading step of reading tire data on successively conveyed tires inorder of conveyance; a label separating step of separating labelssuccessively mounted on a supporting strip so as to extend fully acrossthe supporting strip and separated from each other by a slit one by onefrom the supporting strip while the labels are being carried by thesupporting strip; a label carrying step of carrying the label separatedfrom the supporting strip at a label carrying speed higher than a movingspeed at which the supporting strip moves; a printing step of printingtire data on the carried labels; and a label attaching step of attachingthe printed label to the tire.

Since the labels are mounted successively on the supporting strip so asto extend fully across the supporting strip, the amount of thesupporting strip to be disposed of can be reduced and material costs canbe reduced.

Since the label separated from the supporting strip is carried at a highlabel carrying speed to a printing station where the printing step isexecuted, the interval between the preceding and the succeeding labelincreases and hence any part of data to be printed on the precedinglabel will not be faultily printed on the succeeding label.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a labeling system in a preferredembodiment of the present invention applied to a tire manufacturingprocess;

FIG. 2 is a schematic side elevation of a label printing-and-attachingmachine included in the labeling system shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a control system included in the labelingsystem shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a flow chart of a control procedure to be carried out by thecontrol system shown in FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a fragmentary perspective view of a supporting strip andlabels supported on the supporting strip; and

FIG. 6 is a schematic side elevation of a label printing-and-attachingmachine included in a labeling system in another embodiment of thepresent invention.

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

A labeling system in a preferred embodiment of the present inventionwill be described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 4.

FIG. 1 shows a labeling system O applied to a tire manufacturing processin a schematic view.

A green tire G manufactured by a first forming process, i.e., a tire notyet vulcanized, is carried by a cart 1 to a labeling station.

Various types of green tires G manufactured by different first formingprocesses, respectively, are carried individually by carts 1respectively for carrying the different types of green tires G to thelabeling station. Therefore, different types of green tires G aredelivered in random order to a tire conveying machine 3 installed at thelabeling station.

ID cards 2 are attached to the carts 1 respectively for carrying thedifferent types of green tires G, respectively. Data including size,material, date, serial number and such about the green tire G on thecart 1 is recorded in each ID card.

An ID card reader 4 is disposed near the tire conveying machine 3. TheID card reader 4 reads the tire data recorded on the ID cared 2 attachedto the cart 1 holding the green tire G when the green tire G is carriedto the tire conveying machine 3.

After the ID card reader 4 has read the tire data, the green tire G istransferred from the cart 1 to the tire conveying machine 3, and thetire conveying machine 3 conveys the green tire G.

A label printing-and-attaching machine 10 is disposed at a positioncorresponding to a middle section of the tire conveying machine 3.

A barcode reader 5 is disposed below the label printing-and-attachingmachine 10 with respect to a direction in which the tire conveyingmachine 3 conveys the green tire G.

The label printing-and-attaching machine 10 and the tire conveyingmachine 3 are controlled by a controller 50. The controller 50 makes adisplay 51, such as a CRT or a liquid crystal display, display resultsof data processing operations.

Pieces of tire data read by the ID card reader 4 and the barcode reader5 are given to the controller 50.

The configuration of the label printing-and-attaching machine 10 will bedescribed with reference to FIG. 2.

The label printing-and-attaching machine 10 has a printer 11, a labelfeed mechanism 21 and a label attaching mechanism 31.

The printer 11 is a thermal transfer printer. The printer 11 may be anysuitable printer other than the thermal transfer printer, such as an inkjet printer. An ink ribbon 13 moves through a space in front of athermal print head included in the printer 11.

A vertical guide plate 15 is disposed opposite to the thermal print head12.

The label feed mechanism 21 moves a supporting strip 22. Labels L areattached in a successive arrangement to a repellent front surface of thesupporting strip 22. The labels L have back surfaces coated with anadhesive. The labels L are attached temporarily to the repellent frontsurface of the supporting strip 22 and can be released from thesupporting strip 22.

The supporting strip 22 holding the blank labels L in a successivearrangement is rolled in a roll. The roll of the supporting strip 22 isheld on a holding roller 23 disposed above the printer 11.

The supporting strip 22 unwound from the roll of the supporting strip 22held on the holding roller 23 travels through an idle roller 24, isguided vertically downward by the guide plate 15, is folded back at thelower end of the guide plate 15, is pinched between a pair of unwindingroller 25 and 26, and is taken up on a take-up roller 27.

The supporting strip 22 pinched between the unwinding rollers 25 and 26is pulled and unwound from the roll held on the holding roller 23 bydriving the unwinding roller 25. Thus the labels L are moved onto theguide plates 15.

The thermal print head 12 of the printer 11 is opposed to an upper halfpart of the guide plate 15. The thermal print head 12 is able to printdata on a blank label L held on the supporting strip 22.

A suction pad 32 included in the label attaching mechanism 31 isdisposed opposite to a lower half part of the guide plate 15. Thesuction pad 32 is capable of attracting a label L by suction.

The label attaching mechanism 31 includes a vacuum device for attractinga label L to the suction pad 32 by suction, a double-acting cylinderactuator 33 for advancing and retracting a rod 33 a holding the suctionpad at its front end, and a linear cylinder actuator 34 for advancingand retracting a rod 34 having an end joined to the double-actingcylinder actuator 33 in directions perpendicular to directions in whichthe rod 33 is advanced and retracted.

A label L printed with tire data by the printer 11 and held on thesupporting strip 22 is advanced to a position corresponding to the lowerhalf part of the guide plate 15. Then, the double-acting cylinderactuator 33 is actuated to take the label L off the supporting strip 22by attracting the label L to the suction pad 32 by suction. Then, thelinear cylinder actuator 34 advances the rod 34 a, and the double-actingcylinder actuator 33 advances the rod 33 a to attach the label L to thegreen tire G set at a predetermined position by pressing the label Lagainst a predetermined part of the side wall of the green tire G near abead as indicated by two-dot chain lines in FIG. 2.

After the label L has been attached to the green tire G, a vacuumcreated in the suction pad 32 is relieved, and the suction pad 32 isseparated from the green tire G and is returned to its home positionindicated by continuous lines in FIG. 2.

After the label L has been taken off the supporting strip 22 at theposition corresponding to the lower half part of the guide plate 15, thesupporting strip 22 is folded back at the lower end of the guide plate15. The pair of unwinding rollers 25 and 26 delivers the unloaded partof the supporting strip 22 to the take-up roller 27, and the take-uproller 27 takes up the unloaded part of the supporting strip 22.

The controller 50 controls those operations of the printer 11, the labelfeed mechanism 21 and the label attaching mechanism 31 of the labelprinting-and-attaching machine 10.

Referring to a block diagram of a control system shown in FIG. 3, thecontroller 50 receives and processes signals provided by the ID cardreader 4 and the barcode reader 5, controls the labelprinting-and-attaching machine 10 and the tire conveying machine 3, andmakes the display 51 display data obtained by processing the signals.

Those operations will be described with reference to FIG. 4 showing aflow chart of a control procedure to be carried out by the controlsystem.

When the green tire G is transferred from the cart 1 to the tireconveying machine 3, the ID card reader 4 reads data on the green tire Gfrom the ID card 2 attached to the cart 1 in step S1.

The tire conveying machine 3 conveys the green tire G in step S2, whilea barcode representing tire data read by the ID card reader 4 is printedon a blank label L held on the supporting strip 22 in step S3.

When the green tire G conveyed in step 2 is set at a label attachingposition in the label printing-and-attaching machine 10, the label Lprinted with the tire data on the green tire G is attracted to thesuction pad 32, and the label attaching mechanism 31 attaches the labelL to the green tire G in step S4.

Then, while the green tire G provided with the label L is being conveyedfurther from the label attaching position in step S5, the barcode reader5 reads the barcode printed on the label L in step S6.

The tire data read by the barcode reader 5 is collated with the tiredata on the green tire G read by the ID card reader 4 in step S7, andthe result of collation is displayed by the display 51 in step S8.

A query is made in step S9 to see whether or not the tire data read bythe barcode reader 5 coincides with the tire data read by the ID cardreader 4. If the response to the query made in step S9 is affirmative,the control procedure goes to step S10 to carry the green tire G to thenext process. If the response to the query made in step S9 is negative,the control procedure goes to step S11 to remove the green tire G fromthe production line.

Thus the printer 11 combined with the label attaching mechanism 31prints the tire data on the green tire G on the label L before the labelL is attached to the green tire G. Therefore, even if different types ofgreen tires are produced in random order and are delivered to the tireconveying machine 3 in random order, a label L printed beforehand withthe tire data on each green tire G is attached accurately to the greentire G specified by the tire data and hence the flexibility ofproduction can be insured.

Since the tire data read by the barcode reader 5 is collated with thetire data read by the ID card reader 4 for collation, it is possible toinsure that the label L printed with the correct tire data on the greentire G is attached to the same green tire G. Thus the correct labels Lcan be accurately attached to the green tires G.

If the timing of operation of the label feed mechanism 21 for feedingsupporting strip 22 is incorrect it is possible that a wrong label L isattached to the green tire G. Such a trouble never arises as long as thelabel feed mechanism 21 operates normally. Even if such a trouble occursby any chance, correct labels L can be attached to the relevant greentires G and the influence of the trouble can be confined to the leastextent by adjusting the operation of the label feed mechanism 21 uponthe detection of a wrong label L. Thus the production line operates atan improved productivity.

Since the supporting strip 22 supporting blank labels L can be stored inrolls, different kinds of labels printed with different tire data do notneed to be stored, which is advantageous in respect of space and amountof work.

Since labels L are successively mounted on a supporting strip 60 so asto extend fully across the supporting strip 60 and separated from eachother by a slit as shown in FIG. 5, the amount of the supporting strip60 to be disposed of can be reduced to the least possible extent, thesupporting strip 60 is not wasted and material costs can be reduced.

If the labels L coated with an adhesive layer are arranged continuously,and a first label L is removed from the supporting strip, a second labelL contiguous with the first label L will come off the supporting striptogether with the first label L because the first and the second labelsL are connected by the adhesive layer or part of tire data to be printedon the label L is liable to be printed on the second label L.

A label printing-and-attaching machine 70 shown in FIG. 6 can be used toavoid such a trouble.

A rolled supporting strip 60 supporting blank labels L in a successivearrangement is unrolled and is advanced in the direction of the arrows.The supporting strip 60 is wound round a small-diameter roller 71 sothat only the supporting strip 60 reverses and the blank label Lseparates from the supporting strip 60. The blank label L separated fromthe supporting strip 60 is pinched between a feed roller 72 and arelease conveyor belt 73 having a release outer surface and is conveyedby the conveyor belt 73.

A release platen roller 74 is disposed below the release conveyor belt73 with respect to the moving direction of the blank label L. A printhead 75 is opposed to the release platen roller 74.

The respective surface speeds of the feed roller 72 and the releaseconveyor belt 75 is raised temporarily immediately after the blank labelbeing conveyed by the feed roller 72 and the release conveyor belt 73has separated completely from the supporting strip 60. Thus the distancebetween the blank label L separated from the supporting strip 60 and thesucceeding blank label L is increased intentionally so that the formerblank label L is surely spaced apart from the succeeding blank label.

Consequently, separation of successive blank labels L from thesupporting strip 60 can be avoided.

After the preceding blank label L has been spaced a predetermineddistance from the succeeding blank label L, the surface speeds of thefeed roller 72 and the release conveyor belt 73 are lowered to returnthe feed roller 72 and the release conveyor belt 73 to their normalsurface speeds.

The print head 75 prints tire data on the blank label L separated fromthe succeeding blank label L and hence any part of the tire data to beprinted on the preceding blank label L will not be printed on thesucceeding blank label L.

A belt conveyor 76 having a plurality of endless belts is disposed belowthe release platen roller 74 with respect to the conveying direction. Asuction head 77 picks up the label L printed with the tire data from thebelt conveyor 76.

Air is blown through spaces between the endless belts while the beltconveyor 76 is carrying the label L printed with the tire data, and thesuction head attracts the label L by suction. The suction head 77carries the label L to and attaches the same to a green tire.

The present invention is capable of correctly attaching labels todifferent types of tires even if those tires are produced in randomorder and are subjected to labeling in random order. Naturally, thepresent invention is applicable to label a lot of the same type oftires.

INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY

The present invention is applicable to tire producing processes.

1. A labeling system comprising: a tire data read means for reading tiredata respectively on successively conveyed tires in order of conveyancein a tire producing process; a printing means for printing the tire dataon the tires on labels; and a label attaching means for attaching thelabels to the tires, respectively; a label reading means for readingtire data printed on the labels attached to the tires; and a collatingmeans for collating the tire data read from the label attached to thetire by the label reading means with the tire data read by the tire datareading means.
 2. (canceled)
 3. The labeling system according to claim1, wherein the printing means prints a barcode representing the tiredata.
 4. The labeling system according to claim 1, wherein thesuccessively conveyed tires are green tires individually carried bycarts, respectively, and the tire data reading means is an ID cardreader that reads the tire data recorded on an ID card attached to thecart.
 5. A labeling method of attaching labels to tires in a tiremanufacturing process comprising: a tire data reading step of readingtire data on successively conveyed tires in order of conveyance; aprinting step of printing tire data on the tires on labels; and a labelattaching step of attaching the labels to the tires; a label readingstep of reading the tire data printed on the labels attached to thetires in the label attaching step; and a collating step of collating thetire data read in the label reading step with the tire data read in thelabel reading step to determine if the tire is correctly labeled. 6.(canceled)
 7. The labeling method according to claim 5, whereindifferent types of fires are carried individually successively in thetire data reading step.
 8. A labeling method of attaching labels tofires in a fire manufacturing process comprising: a fire data readingstep of reading tire data on successively conveyed fires in order ofconveyance; a label separating step of separating labels successivelymounted on a supporting strip so as to extend fully across thesupporting strip and separated from each other by a slit one by one fromthe supporting strip while the labels are being carried by thesupporting strip; a label carrying step of carrying the label separatedfrom the supporting strip at a label carrying speed higher than a movingspeed at which the supporting strip moves; a printing step of printingfire data on the label separated from the supporting strip; and a labelattaching step of attaching the label printed with the tire data to thefire.